Indoor positioning means implementing location positioning in an indoor environment. In an indoor positioning system, a positioning tag is generally attached to a positioned object. The positioning tag is generally related to two pieces of information. One is an identifier carried by the positioning tag, and the identifier is used to represent a characteristic of the positioning tag, for example, used to indicate a physical address of the positioning tag, the other is configuration information, the configuration information is stored in a positioning server, and if the positioning tag has a corresponding positioned object, the configuration information is used to indicate information about the positioned object represented by the positioning tag.
The positioning tag is generally powered using a battery. When a battery of an old positioning tag is running out, and the old positioning tag needs to be replaced with a new positioning tag, a positioned object originally corresponding to the old positioning tag needs to be positioned using the new positioning tag in order to ensure continuous positioning of the positioned object.
A conventional method is using a terminal tool. First, the terminal tool notifies the positioning server that an operation of replacing the old positioning tag with the new positioning tag is to be performed. Then the terminal tool separately reads an identifier of the old positioning tag and an identifier of the new positioning tag, and reports the identifiers to the positioning server. The positioning server binds the positioned object corresponding to the old positioning tag to the new positioning tag, and finally replaces the old positioning tag with the new positioning tag. A disadvantage of the conventional method is that costs are increased because the identifiers of the new and old positioning tags need to be read and uploaded to the positioning server using the additional terminal tool. Moreover, only a person who has received professional training can complete a positioning tag replacement operation because the operation is quite complex.
Another conventional method is using a wireless communications technology. When the old positioning tag needs to be replaced with the new positioning tag, a wireless communications link is established between the new and old positioning tags to obtain identifiers of the new and old positioning tags. Finally, the corresponding identifiers of the positioning tags are uploaded to the positioning server to instruct the server to complete a positioning tag replacement task.
Disadvantages of the conventional method are described in two aspects.
Positioning tag replacement can be completed only when the new and old tags perform wireless communication. If a wireless communication manner used between the new and old tags is different from a wireless manner used by the indoor positioning system for positioning, an additional wireless communications system needs to be applied to the positioning tags, increasing costs and complexity of the positioning tags.
However, if a wireless communication manner that is the same as that used by the indoor positioning system for positioning is used, in a process of replacing the old positioning tag with the new positioning tag, the new and old positioning tags need to exit from a current wireless communications environment of the indoor positioning system, and join the positioning system again after the replacement is completed. During this time period, the positioned object is not being positioned and out of control in the positioning system.